如果有人需要Swift的解决方案:

添加UITextViewDelegate到类中

var placeHolderText = "Placeholder Text..."

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    textView.delegate = self
}

func textViewShouldBeginEditing(textView: UITextView) -> Bool {

    self.textView.textColor = .black

    if(self.textView.text == placeHolderText) {
        self.textView.text = ""
    }

    return true
}

func textViewDidEndEditing(textView: UITextView) {
    if(textView.text == "") {
        self.textView.text = placeHolderText
        self.textView.textColor = .lightGray
    }
}

override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) {

    if(currentQuestion.answerDisplayValue == "") {
        self.textView.text = placeHolderText
        self.textView.textColor = .lightGray
    } else {
        self.textView.text = "xxx" // load default text / or stored 
        self.textView.textColor = .black
    }
}

你能做的是在文本属性中设置文本视图的初始值，并将textColor更改为[UIColor grayColor]或类似的东西。然后，每当文本视图变为可编辑时，清除文本并显示游标，如果文本字段再次为空，则将占位符文本放回。根据需要将颜色更改为[UIColor blackColor]。

它与UITextField中的占位符功能不完全相同，但很接近。

基于这里已经给出的一些很好的建议，我能够将以下轻量级的、与接口生成器兼容的UITextView子类组合在一起，它是:

包括可配置的占位符文本，样式就像UITextField一样。 不需要任何额外的子视图或约束。 不需要来自ViewController的任何委托或其他行为。 不需要任何通知。 保持该文本与查看字段的文本属性的任何外部类完全分离。

欢迎提出改进建议。

编辑1:更新为重置占位符格式，如果实际文本以编程方式设置。

编辑2:现在可以以编程方式检索占位符文本颜色。

斯威夫特v5:

import UIKit
@IBDesignable class TextViewWithPlaceholder: UITextView {
    
    override var text: String! { // Ensures that the placeholder text is never returned as the field's text
        get {
            if showingPlaceholder {
                return "" // When showing the placeholder, there's no real text to return
            } else { return super.text }
        }
        set {
            if showingPlaceholder {
                removePlaceholderFormatting() // If the placeholder text is what's being changed, it's no longer the placeholder
            }
            super.text = newValue
        }
    }
    @IBInspectable var placeholderText: String = ""
    @IBInspectable var placeholderTextColor: UIColor = .placeholderText
    private var showingPlaceholder: Bool = true // Keeps track of whether the field is currently showing a placeholder
    
    override func didMoveToWindow() {
        super.didMoveToWindow()
        if text.isEmpty {
            showPlaceholderText() // Load up the placeholder text when first appearing, but not if coming back to a view where text was already entered
        }
    }
    
    override public func becomeFirstResponder() -> Bool {
        
        // If the current text is the placeholder, remove it
        if showingPlaceholder {
            text = nil
            removePlaceholderFormatting()
        }
        return super.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
    
    override public func resignFirstResponder() -> Bool {
        
        // If there's no text, put the placeholder back
        if text.isEmpty {
            showPlaceholderText()
        }
        return super.resignFirstResponder()
    }
    
    private func showPlaceholderText() {
        
        text = placeholderText
        showingPlaceholder = true
        textColor = placeholderTextColor
    }
    
    private func removePlaceholderFormatting() {
        
        showingPlaceholder = false
        textColor = nil // Put the text back to the default, unmodified color
    }
}

下面是swift 3.1的代码

原始代码由杰森乔治在第一个答案。

不要忘记设置你的自定义类的TextView在接口生成器UIPlaceHolderTextView，然后设置占位符和占位符属性。

import UIKit

@IBDesignable
class UIPlaceHolderTextView: UITextView {

@IBInspectable var placeholder: String = ""
@IBInspectable var placeholderColor: UIColor = UIColor.lightGray

private let uiPlaceholderTextChangedAnimationDuration: Double = 0.05
private let defaultTagValue = 999

private var placeHolderLabel: UILabel?

override func awakeFromNib() {
    super.awakeFromNib()
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
        self,
        selector: #selector(textChanged),
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

override init(frame: CGRect, textContainer: NSTextContainer?) {
    super.init(frame: frame, textContainer: textContainer)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
        self,
        selector: #selector(textChanged),
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
    super.init(coder: aDecoder)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
        self,
        selector: #selector(textChanged),
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

deinit {
    NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(
        self,
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

@objc private func textChanged() {
    guard !placeholder.isEmpty else {
        return
    }
    UIView.animate(withDuration: uiPlaceholderTextChangedAnimationDuration) {
        if self.text.isEmpty {
            self.viewWithTag(self.defaultTagValue)?.alpha = CGFloat(1.0)
        }
        else {
            self.viewWithTag(self.defaultTagValue)?.alpha = CGFloat(0.0)
        }
    }
}

override var text: String! {
    didSet{
        super.text = text
        textChanged()
    }
}

override func draw(_ rect: CGRect) {
    if !placeholder.isEmpty {
        if placeHolderLabel == nil {
            placeHolderLabel = UILabel.init(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 8, width: bounds.size.width - 16, height: 0))
            placeHolderLabel!.lineBreakMode = .byWordWrapping
            placeHolderLabel!.numberOfLines = 0
            placeHolderLabel!.font = font
            placeHolderLabel!.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear
            placeHolderLabel!.textColor = placeholderColor
            placeHolderLabel!.alpha = 0
            placeHolderLabel!.tag = defaultTagValue
            self.addSubview(placeHolderLabel!)
        }

        placeHolderLabel!.text = placeholder
        placeHolderLabel!.sizeToFit()
        self.sendSubview(toBack: placeHolderLabel!)

        if text.isEmpty && !placeholder.isEmpty {
            viewWithTag(defaultTagValue)?.alpha = 1.0
        }
    }

    super.draw(rect)
}
}

    - (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView
{
    placeholderLabel.hidden = YES;
}

在textview上放一个标签。

一个更简单的方法是创建一个次要的UITextView，它具有与原始文本视图相同的所有属性，除了不同的textColor，并带有约束以确保它们保持对齐。然后当任何字符进入主文本视图时，隐藏克隆文本视图，否则显示带有一些文本的克隆文本视图。

这可以通过几种方式实现，但相对简单的方法是子类化UITextView并将所有这些逻辑保留在子类中。

所以，子类UITextView并允许它惰性地创建它的占位符视图

接口文件:

@interface FOOTextView : UITextView <UITextViewDelegate>

@property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *placeholderText;

- (void)checkPlaceholder;

@end

实现文件:

#import "FOOTextView.h"

@interface FOOTextView ()

@property (nonatomic, strong) UITextView *placeholderTextView;

@end

@implementation FOOTextView

- (void)checkPlaceholder {
    // Hide the placeholder text view if we've got any text
    self.placeholderTextView.hidden = (self.text.length > 0 || self.attributedText.length > 0);
}

- (void)setPlaceholderText:(NSString *)placeholderText {
    _placeholderText = [placeholderText copy];

    // Setup the placeholder text view if we haven't already
    [self setupPlaceholderTextView];

    // Apply the placeholder text to the placeholder text view
    self.placeholderTextView.text = placeholderText;
}

- (void)setupPlaceholderTextView {
    if (!self.placeholderTextView) {

        // Setup the place holder text view, duplicating our visual setup
        self.placeholderTextView = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
        self.placeholderTextView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;
        self.placeholderTextView.textColor = self.placeholderTextColor ? self.placeholderTextColor : [UIColor colorWithRed:199.f/255.f green:199.f/255.f blue:205.f/255.f alpha:1.f];
        self.placeholderTextView.userInteractionEnabled = NO;
        self.placeholderTextView.font = self.font;
        self.placeholderTextView.textAlignment = self.textAlignment;
        self.placeholderTextView.backgroundColor = self.backgroundColor;
        self.placeholderTextView.editable = NO;

        // Our background color must be clear for the placeholder text view to show through
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

        // Insert the placeholder text view into our superview, below ourself so it shows through
        [self.superview insertSubview:self.placeholderTextView belowSubview:self];

        // Setup constraints to ensure the placeholder text view stays aligned with us
        NSLayoutConstraint *constraintCenterX = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:self.placeholderTextView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeCenterX relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem:self attribute:NSLayoutAttributeCenterX multiplier:1.f constant:0.f];
        NSLayoutConstraint *constraintCenterY = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:self.placeholderTextView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeCenterY relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem:self attribute:NSLayoutAttributeCenterY multiplier:1.f constant:0.f];
        NSLayoutConstraint *constraintWidth = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:self.placeholderTextView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeWidth relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem:self attribute:NSLayoutAttributeWidth multiplier:1.f constant:0.f];
        NSLayoutConstraint *constraintHeight = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:self.placeholderTextView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeHeight relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem:self attribute:NSLayoutAttributeHeight multiplier:1.f constant:0.f];
        NSArray *constraints = @[constraintCenterX, constraintCenterY, constraintWidth, constraintHeight];
        [self.superview addConstraints:constraints];

    }
}

- (void)setPlaceholderTextColor:(UIColor *)placeholderTextColor {
    _placeholderTextColor = placeholderTextColor;
    self.placeholderTextView.textColor = _placeholderTextColor;
}

- (void)setBackgroundColor:(UIColor *)backgroundColor {
    // We don't want a background color ourselves, instead we want our placeholder text view to have the desired background color
    [self.placeholderTextView setBackgroundColor:backgroundColor];
}

- (void)removeFromSuperview {
    // Ensure we also remove our placeholder text view
    [self.placeholderTextView removeFromSuperview];
    self.placeholderTextView = nil;
    [super removeFromSuperview];
}

#pragma mark - Text View Delegation 
- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView {
    [self checkPlaceholder];
}

@end

使用上面的类，如果你设置了一个FOOTextView的委托实例到它自己，一切都将开箱工作:

FOOTextView *myTextView = ...
myTextView.placeholderText = @"What's on your mind?";
myTextView.placeholderTextColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
myTextView.delegate = myTextView;

如果你想另一个对象接管作为委托，那么你只需要在textViewDidChange: delegate方法中调用文本视图的checkPlaceholder方法，例如;

FOOTextView *myTextView = ...
myTextView.placeholderText = @"What's on your mind?";
myTextView.placeholderTextColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
myTextView.delegate = self;
self.myTextView = myTextView;

- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView {
    // Call the checkPlaceholder method to update the visuals
    [self.myTextView checkPlaceholder];
}